BY CINDY BORGMEYER
Right in step with today's evolving health care environment, the AAFP Congress of Delegates called Oct. 1 for a few changes of its own -- starting with the name of the specialty.
The delegates directed the Academy to replace the term family practice with family medicine when referring to the specialty. The substitute resolution effecting the change combined proposals introduced by the Joint Constituency of the National Conference of Special Constituencies and the Minnesota AFP.
In reference committee testimony Sept. 30, Minnesota alternate delegate Patricia Lindholm, M.D., of Fergus Falls embraced the proposed change, saying it would help family physicians be recognized as the specialists they are.
"While it may be semantics to some, perception is everything," Lindholm said. "I specialize in family medicine. If our own colleagues in medicine don't understand that we're specialists, I don't think our patients can (understand), either."
Also banished is the dreaded "P word": Those who specialize in family medicine are family physicians, not practitioners, delegates affirmed. It's a move New Physician Constituency alternate delegate Michael Sevilla, M.D., of Salem, Ohio, welcomed.
"How many times have we been asked, 'How is a family practitioner different from a nurse practitioner?'" he inquired during the reference committee hearing.
Finally, the resolution called for the AAFP to encourage the American Board of Family Practice to change its name to reflect the family medicine nomenclature.
The specialty's name is one of many issues being considered by the ongoing Future of Family Medicine project. That project includes input from all of the family medicine organizations.
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